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| Made of Bricks | 
 enlarge | Artist: Kate Nash
Label: Interscope
Category: Music
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $5.50
You Save: $4.48 (45%)
New (49) Used (22) from $5.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 1756
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 1745515
UPC: 602517455153
EAN: 0602517455153
ASIN: B000V3L0ZK
Release Date: January 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Play | | • | Foundations | | • | Mouthwash | | • | Dickhead | | • | Birds | | • | We Get On | | • | Mariella | | • | Shit Song | | • | Pumpkin Soup | | • | Skeleton Song | | • | Nicest Thing | | • | Merry Happy |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Thanks to a gaggle of loyal MySpace friends, Kate Nash skyrocketed to the top of the British charts just a year after penning her first song, so you might expect her first album to sound a bit cobbled together. In reality, it is a wildly exuberant, refreshingly original set of songs that suffers from only a few lyrical clunkers and less-than-realized melodies. For the most part, it follows mentor Lily Allen's genre-busting lead, wrapping charming tunes like "We Get On" and "Pumpkin Soup" around lopsided beats, simple piano melodies, and blunt kiss-offs that Nash delivers through a laughably thick cockney accent. "Foundations" brings everything together beautifully, spinning a romantic argument into a surprisingly poignant and memorable single that confirms her sudden success as no fluke. --Aidin Vaziri
Album Description
2007 debut album from the UK songstress Kate Nash. Pop music with indie sensibilities and an experimental edge permeate much of this album, and it is topped off with Nash's distinctive estuary vocal stylings. Since the album's release, Nash has been the talk of the town in the UK, where she regularly appears in most of the music magazines from NME to Q. She has quickly risen the ranks from 'darling of the critics' to commercially-successful artist, and deservedly so. Features 12 tracks including the single 'Foundations'. Universal.
Album Details
2007 Debut Full Length Album from the Young Lady who was the Talk of 2007. Her Debut Single for Fiction Records, "Foundations", Debuted at Number Two in the UK and is One of Summer 2007's Biggest Singles! She also Caused a Storm on the Live Scene as She was One of the Highlights of the Annual Glastonbury Festival and Played an Amazing Set at the UK'S "t in the Park" Fest. She Writes Impeccable Poetry Accompanied by Great Electro-pop Beats in Confections that have Had Visitors to her Myspace Site Hunkering for More.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...
 Studio only "talent" January 10, 2008
18 out of 69 found this review helpful
I decided to check out this artist (and I use that in only the loosest sense) after seeing her on O'Brien. My respect for an artist/band stems from their ability to perform live, as this is a true measure of their talent. Anyone can sounds amazing in the studio thanks (or perhaps no thanks) to the technology of the day, and I must say that Kate Nash is God awful live. Her piano playing was sub par and I doubt she could carry a tune even if it had handles on it. The only reason I was tortured by her presence on a late talk night show was due to the influences of the power house that is Top 40 radio and the bastion of mediocrity that is MTV.
Do the rest of the planet a favor; delete MTV from your channel line up, skip anything owned by Clear Channel on your dial, and head into a mom and pop music store, pick up a few of the free local rags, and purchase albums by musicians who can actually play their instruments better than a tone deaf monkey.
But, if you must purchase this CD, it would be better served placed under the leg of a wobbly table.
 Music to build on? February 22, 2008
13 out of 27 found this review helpful
Kate Nash's "Made of Bricks" isn't as sturdy a debut as critics have hailed it to be, but it is alright in terms of effort. Nash has been a hyped as a "MySpace diva" along with newcomers like Colbie Caillat, Lily Allen&Sara Bareilles. The social networking site has given her a worldwide audience... but is it worth listening to?
"Made of Bricks" is a mixed bag. The highlights are the easygoing "Birds" and "Nicest Thing", the '60s style "We get on", the un-cliched "Skeleton Song" and "Pumpkin Soup",which is spiced up with different rhythms&a unique melody. Half of the tracks are interesting. The other half,however,range from the "experimental" spoken word "Play" (with Hammond organ!) to the truly terrible "S*it Song" and "D*ckhead." "S*it Song","D*ckhead","Merry Happy" and "Foundations" are all about her plight with idiotic boyfriends&how much she belittles them. One feels sympathetic for them,since she constantly berates them. She's a Cockney Alanis Morrissette with a piano!
"Made of Bricks" doesn't offer anything much unique. She's a piano-playing Lily Allen (when it comes to vulgarity)&she's got Alanis Morrissette's anger. She's slightly more talented than both. If her musical foundation is made of bricks,she can build on her talents in the future.
Smart, fun album February 3, 2008
11 out of 28 found this review helpful
This is a great album! It's fun and upbeat, but the songs are well written and have a dark edge. I'm surprised how smart the lyrics are at times; some of the songs tell a whole story, and do it well. Reading the list of song titles, you might expect a silly young pop star with more attitude than talent, but that's not the case at all.
I give "Made of Bricks" four stars, because there are a few clear favorites (We Get On, Mariella, Skeleton Song, Foundations). But I don't dislike any of the songs, and I listen to it from beginning to end almost every time.
By the way, ignore comparisons to Lily Allen. Kate's music doesn't really have much hip-hop/R&B influence, and if it did I wouldn't like it. There are occasional Regina Spektor-like moments, but mostly Kate is a unique artist who doesn't sound like other musicians I've heard.
 Fun, fresh, honest and an utterly priceless debut... October 8, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I think the best way to really explain the feeling you get when listening to Kate Nash is this way...it feels like reading the diary of a teenage girl, poetic yet familiar, mature yet in a very childish way filled to the brim with her ideas of heartbreak, true love and loneliness. With that said I must say that `Made of Bricks' is probably the best album I've heard this entire year. From start to finish it's engrossing and completely entertaining. Kate Nash has a way with words; she makes them sound so inviting and so expressive. That's what I love about this album. Like I mentioned, her terminology is at times childish but it's poetic at the same time, very expressive and mature.
The album opens with `Play' which is less a song and more an introduction of interlude of sorts. That's all that really needs to be said about that. She repeats "I like to play" over and over for a little over a minute. The album really begins though with the single `Foundations', a song about trying to salvage a relationship that is falling apart at the seams. The first verse is so relatable, I think everyone has witnessed this almost exact experience or at least known someone who has. Using phrases like "you said I must eat so many lemons because I am so bitter" is a perfect example of the simplistic and or childish terminology I mentioned earlier. Her next single `Mouthwash' is even more enjoyable. I just love the feeling behind her music here. `D***head' is actually brilliant in its simplicity. It sounds just like the something you'd hear come out of a venting schoolgirl's mouth. It's the most vulgar song here and in the end it may be one of the most powerful. The interlude `S*** Song' kind of carries this same weight, expressive in its vulgarity.
The song `Skeleton Song' to me is a track about loneliness, a song about finding solace in oneself, say the fascination with imaginary friends with children. It's about finally growing up and realizing that you have to eventually let go and find that solace in the ones around you. It may not really be about this subject, but that's the impression that I get from it and so that's what it means to me. `Mariella' is probably the best track here or at least very close to it. It tackles to subject of being true to oneself and the innate desire to be ourselves and not conform to the wishes of others. Nash recites here her desire to be like a girl she knew named Mariella who glued her lips together so she would not have to speak to anyone, who refused to wear the clothes her mother tried to enforce on her and who relished in herself and couldn't care less about what the other boys and girls felt about her. It's a very catchy and impressive track.
`Birds' is one of those tracks that sounds much like a poem or short story that a very young child would write, the chorus especially. It's an acoustic track about a young girl and boy who run away together and they express their love by singing about birds. It's actually quite funny.
`We Get On' to me sounds like British Motown to me and I just LOVE it. It's not like any other track on the album but it's so bubbly and infectious, Nash does it so much justice. `Pumpkin Soup' is another track is different then any other. It's very hip-hopish and it really works. It's a song about the strange behavior of those in love or at least in deep infatuation with another. `Nicest Thing' though is probably the most distant from the rest of the album. It's a very beautiful and touching song about being in love and not having that feeling returned. The violins compliment Kate's distinct vocals. Her lyrics are so poignant and moving. She closes her album with `Merry Happy' which is just a brilliant way to close the album, very happy, very intoxicating with its poppy feel. It's one of those songs that you need to sing along to.
So, all in all `Made of Bricks' is a downright perfect album, just amazing for a debut which scares me a bit. I've seen this happen with Damien Rice, when you're debut is just so impressive, so brilliant that you can't follow it up with anything that can top it. Here's to hoping Nash really develops her sound and blows us away again with her sophomore album, whenever that comes around. Until then we have `Made of Bricks' and honestly it's brilliant enough to hold us over until she's ready to give us more.
 It's Probably Her Own Fault January 27, 2008
7 out of 19 found this review helpful
I am not sure if the English enjoy a strong English accent as much as we Americans, but I love it: Cockney Rebel, Stratford Mercs...
I give this CD 3 stars because it is a fun piece of music, but musically not much (not saying that's bad).
Still, I don't get these girls today...they have totally departed from how nature intended for a woman to find a good man. Today they look for a "bad boy", they want a man that won't be too strong, so they won't rule them. They pick up men in bars, and then wonder why they drink too much and look at other women.
I could go on, but I say all this becuase these women and their, "I'm upset at men", get kinda old (Alanis, Amy, Kate). I wonder how a CD with a positive message would go over? (probably not good :-))
Still, Kate, you are talented, interesting, and cute as hell. Keep going.
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